27.01.2008

two show days

Two show days are intense, and when they’re the last days you’re in a place there’s a lot of cramming of experiences into very small amounts of time.

Yesterday jo, sonia, simon and I went on a short ferry trip across the harbour to ward island, which is part of the Toronto islands, to have a walk and a coffee before the shows. For about half the trip the ferry had to crunch slowly through the ice which I’ve been admiring from the hotel window. It was wonderful to see all the sheets of ice up close and we revelled in the patterning of the all the different bits. It was pretty damn cold on the island, but it was truly lovely, very quiet and small, with not very many houses or people, and still covered with snow. We walked for a while along the boardwalk next tot the lake proper, which has waves and seems like the sea. There was the icy water, snow and bare trees and us. Wild and romantic.

Then caught a few bits of public transport uptown to collect phillip and my new pants from the gorgeous Egyptian woman who was altering them for us, did a quick bit of present shopping and then ran to the theatre to get ready for the shows.

As the week has progressed there has been more and more interest in the show and lots more people at the eaton centre, so performing has been getting increasingly intense, with more and more people watching us and the audience and just generally hanging around. It’s been fine, but quite full on for us. As far as we can tell from the reactions and what people tell us it has been going really well, and it seems that the setting and what’s happening around us is very fascinating for the audience, so that’s good, and puts it in perspective for us, makes it easier to handle.

After all that I was pretty tired and so headed back to the extremely comfortable and warm hotel room, drank red wine and watched the women’s finals of the Australian Open. Nice.

Today was another two show day, but with an even earlier start because the first show was at 1pm, so got up early, did yoga and instead of going skating with jimmy did a quick personal tour of some of the architectural delights of Toronto. It was so great. Saw BCE Place, designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill which actually does achieve the cathedral-like magnificence that the eaton centre merely aspires to. It is glorious. Then skipped uptown again to feast my eyes upon Daniel Libeskind’s excellent interpolation upon the Royal Ontario Museum, and Will Alsop’s Centre for Design, which is a huge white and black checkered box balanced on sticks.

It started to snow between the shows, and hasn’t yet stopped. This was a beautiful parting gift. I was very happy to see more snow, to watch it swirling through the air, to catch it and run in it. On the way home we passed this huge square which was filled with people and all sorts of things happening, including hundreds and hundreds of flowerpots filled with fire. These flower pots surrounded the square on this high walkway, and were also arranged on various metal contraptions and in various different shapes throughout the area: circles, huge balls of fire, moving tendrils and arches. Not only were they very spectacular, but the fires were tended by groups of enigmatic Frenchmen in long coats and formal hats. Sexy.

We wandered home through the lovely snow, in a vain attempt to get an early night. Whatever. I’ll sleep on the plane. Arrive refreshed and alert in Vancouver. Yuh huh.